I’m overjoyed to announce I’ve been hired as an Artist Organizer with the Friendly Streets Initiative, in partnership with the Hamline Midway Coalition and Springboard for the Arts. My 9 month appointment will include coordinating artistic projects within the FSI’s 2014 project sites to complement their local, grassroots community engagement work. It feels like a perfect continuation of the placemaking I did with Friendly Streets and Springboard three years ago, the social media consulting work I do for the Irrigate project, and all the knowledge and best practices I soaked up in the Intermedia Arts Creative Community Leadership Institute last year. And I’m sure my Land of Parcheesopoly dice and plethora of leftover sidewalk chalk from last summer’s open streets events will come in handy, too!

Background on Friendly Streets (or skip to the photos at the bottom if you want!)

Responding to neighbor concerns about the designation of Charles Avenue (which runs 2 blocks North of University Ave) as a potential bike boulevard in city plans, the Friendly Streets Initiative arose to search for ways residents could have active, effective and inclusive input into the future of the street. Working with the Hamline Midway Coalition and Frogtown Neighborhood Association, five block parties were held in the summer of 2011 that brought the civic engagement process out onto the pavement. Large images of various infrastructure and placemaking ideas were turned into a mobile gallery, and block party attendees could vote on ideas they liked best with stickers and post its. The “gallery of images” also added an interactive component to the more in depth paper surveys people were asked to fill out.

In addition, Friendly Streets partnered with Springboard for the Arts to hire ten artists (including me) to bring creative placemaking activities to the block parties. Community singing, painting, improv games, building sculptural ring toss benches, creating flags that were an ode to foreclosed homes on the block, bike flags, recycled magazine bowls, and a Q&A photo project brought fun, exciting energy to the parties while giving residents creative ways to express some of the concerns and issues they are facing. This work also informed Springboard’s continuing effort to connect artist and community through creative placemaking with the much larger Irrigate project which launched that fall.

After a successful run of summer block parties, the Friendly Streets team wrote a report summarizing the data and findings. This data combined with a tremendously strong outpouring of support from the community at additional Friendly Streets events and formal policy meetings the following year led to residents’ input being directly integrated into city plans for Charles Avenue, and construction of various improvements voted on by residents (such as bump outs and roundabouts) is set to begin in 2014.

The Friendly Streets team (headed by Lars Christiansen) was invited to bring their gallery of images and model of street-based community engagement to other neighborhoods in St. Paul facing similar challenges with regards to bicycle and pedestrian mobility, access to the new Green Line LRT and other neighborhood changes that come with heavy development projects such as the Central Corridor. Partnerships with the Frogtown Neighborhood Association, St. Anthony Park Community Council, Summit-University Planning Council, Desnoyer Park Improvement Association, and Union Park District Council are alive and flourishing. I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of it.

This might sound really odd, but the original inspiration for these came from the see-through elevator in a West Bank parking ramp near the Rarig Center in Minneapolis. I was walking between Fringe Festival venues in August and was distracted and fascinated by the inner workings of the lift that could be seen through the glass. Those mechanisms started out more literal in the first painting and evolved a lot, unexpectedly turning into something that reminds me of lungs (a subconscious throwback to the Phantom Organs paintings I did three years ago?). That moment was also what spurred me to add the phrase “my curiosity about the similarities between the things we build, and the things we are built of” to my artist statement – long before I had actually made the paintings. Constantly trying to catch up to my brain.

Elevation 1
Watercolor on Paper, 2014.
8″ x 10″

Elevation 2
Watercolor on Paper, 2014
8″ x 10″

Elevation 3
Watercolor on Paper, 2014
8″ x 10″

I’ll be installing an assortment of my work at One Yoga studio in Minneapolis on Saturday. It will be up for two months and I’ll post more details and photos once the show is up.

Always surprise yourself. Never do exactly what you are expecting yourself to do.

Make things go funky and weird, but go slowly enough that you know when to stop. (When you’ve reached the right amount of funk.)

Turn “mistakes” into another unexpected quirky thingamabob.

Talk to the funky, quirky things when necessary.

Watch the work unfold with eyes and heart wide open, kind of like watching a sunset.

Don’t cry too much while painting or it’ll start to smudge. Unless you want to fill the teardrops landing there with pigment…not really sure what the salt content will do to the surface but it could be a fun experiment.

The moment when you start to get bored of something is probably the point when you need to elaborate on it twice over rather than completely abandoning it.

Ask yourself if you can make some of the blobbies just a little bit bigger. Or just a little bit smaller.

Follow the rule of gravity. Or don’t.

Once in a while, do the thing that you think (or feel) is going to turn out really ugly. You’ll either get it out of your system, or discover something incredible.

Don’t finish a painting until you’ve already started another one. (Always have something in progress.)

Don’t drink the paint water by accident, and don’t dip your brush in your tea.

*Scientists, mathematicians, statisticians etc probably wouldn’t consider all of these to fall under the definition and functionality of a “rule”. Whatever.

I’m sure some of these could apply to other artistic disciplines. And non artistic disciplines, for that matter. Which one speaks to you? Do you have any weird, unspoken limitations you put on yourself as you write, dance, plan, organize, sculpt, sketch, brainstorm, or whatever it is you do?

“What if we were living our art in the service of skillful lives?” – Wendy Morris

“How can you have an existence that is simple and spacious and outrageously useful?” -Erik Takeshita

“Skepticism means you really care.” – Bill Cleveland

Two months ago…

During nap time, I sit in the dark surrounded by tiny little humans dozing away, and on a small device in the palm of my hand, I read about James Turrell, social entrepreneurship, feminism, gentrification, innovation, crowd sourcing, placemaking, crowd sourced placemaking, private-public partnerships, appropriation, social sculpture, sustainability, the “realest” tweets, vulnerability, baby boomers, millenials, thin privilege, Cindy Sherman, Theaster Gates, the many uses of chalkboard paint, rape culture, revolution on the other side of the world…and my heart beats hard, longing for action. And I sit still and listen to the children breathe in their peaceful slumber. Drinking in the darkness.

Drinking in the darkness. I didn’t get that phrase from teaching preschool. I heard it repeated ten, maybe eleven times, over the span of four and a half months, in improvised warm up exercises led by Wendy Morris at each convening of the Spring 2013 Creative Community Leadership Institute. Rub your hands together, she said. We let the rhythm spread to our shoulders, back, hips, whole body, two dozen souls inside flesh humming along. Stop. Put your hands, warmed from the friction, over your eyes. Drinking in the darkness.

I meant to write more about the Institute a while ago. Somehow the first paragraph above brought me back to that circle. It was originally just going to be a little Facebook status update. I wasn’t even thinking about CCLI. Yet suddenly that phrase came back to me, thinking about the darkened classroom where I hold a whispered vigil every afternoon, writing notes to parents and mixing tempera paint and catching up on an overwhelming backlog of “relevant” and “important” articles I’ve saved on my phone.

At Saint Paul Open Streets Sunday, September 15th, 11am-6pm, University Avenue will be closed to auto traffic between Hamline and Marion with a huge variety of activities, local business offerings, music and fun along the avenue. I am presenting the now well-seasoned evolving, life-sized sidewalk chalk board game as one of several fun, family-friendly art activities on the corner of University and Hamline in the old Midway Chevrolet lot. This vacant car dealership is the future site of an affordable housing development by Project for Pride in Living, and in the meantime is undergoing temporary creative placemaking interventions via the Artify Hamline Station initiative, with support from Irrigate in partnership with PPL. All the open streets art projects at this site will use the theme “Home is…”

Co-create a giant sidewalk chalk board game in the street! Roll dice. Hop, twirl, squawk, recite, wiggle. Make up rules, build it bigger. The game evolves throughout the day as players add to the board with their own instructions and alter routes and rules of play. Examples might include basics such as “Go back 2 spaces” or “Roll again” as well as creative action commands like “Make a funny face at someone you don’t know.” “Recite a seven word poem about honey badgers.” “Sing a song you hated as a child.” “Pretend you are wearing a funny hat.” The Land of Parcheesopoly is designed to instigate connection and interaction with friends and strangers through movement, laughter, manipulation and negotiation of rules, cheating when appropriate, and ridiculousness.

This semitransparent painting experiment I’ve had in progress for a while is taking shape, and I’m finally putting my foot down, applying for window display opportunities, and forcing myself to figure out how to actually hang it. Feeling optimistic. I ordered some earth magnets this week! Here’s the beginnings of a hypothetical installation arrangement, missing a few more blobby droplet thingies that have yet to be added (can you tell they’re painted on the BACK? So fun!), along with more painting segments (or a separate grouping maybe?).

It’s sounding likely that I’ll be doing a window display for Susan Hensel Gallery sometime next year, and some other exhibition ideas/opportunities are in the works. I also recently confirmed an exhibition at One Yoga in Uptown, Minneapolis next February and March. When I stopped by to check out the wall space Claudia Poser‘s work was there! I love her stuff and she and her husband own one of my paintings. Yay for good vibes. My little seedlings, podlings, bubbles and ladder thingies are ready to get their Namaste on. I’m considering titling the show Vrksasana (tree pose).

Here are all the instructions from the first playing of The Land of Parcheesopoly at Northern Spark in June of 2013, in the random order in which I remembered and gathered them from photos, with some fun links to photos and videos taken by me and others playing. It was interesting to see the difference between this board game co-creation in the middle of the night (which got a little baudy), vs. the much more family-friendly vibe that the daytime events received. The Northern Spark game stretched all the way down the full city block and looped back on itself, plus the additional shorter, sheltered route under the skyway, and we very nearly ran out of chalk. It started to rain at 2am and washed away most of it, but we had a great run of it before then!

Play a simultaneous badminton game with another player on the boardStart a thumb war with someoneHug a strangerHug a friendKiss a stranger on the cheekAsk a stranger out, then change your mindQuote an anarchist thinkerName 3 opera starsTweet to @NET_SVillaDMEOTell someone in your group that you love themSay something that would make your mom happyMake someone smileCompliment a random strangerShout (nicely) at a cyclistPretend you are wearing a funny hat (morphed into “furry” hat later when it the chalk smeared)Groom yourself like a cat (Captured both here and here!)Pose like a squirrelHowl like a wolfHoller like TarzenDo your best Schwartzenegger really loudlySing the ABC’s as loud as you canSing a song you hated as a child really loudTell a joke to someone you don’t know (optional: wear jester hat while doing it)Call me! (with cell phone number)FartRe-enact your last bowel movementBoobie shaped space (There were two of them. Really people? Pshhhh.)Recite a 7 word poem about honey badgers or zombiesMake up a poem involving sausageWiggle like green jelloMake something! (with pipe cleaners)Bush Cheney 2016Dance like a robotMove like a mimeNext time you see someone you know, sing lyrics instead of talking to them.Keep trying to juggle until your next turnMake a snow angel standing upJump!Jump high five!Five jumping jacksDo the wormWalk like an egyptianChange the snake eyes rule but go back to the beginningWhen you’re done, change the rule for rolling sevenFlamingos attack! Stand on one leg so that they think you are one of them.Have a discussion about how the media controls your lifeTell a secretCall or text your last cell phone contact with a secretShout your favorite veggie (Me: Parsnip!!!)Forget you button guy (huh?)Ask a stranger to roll your dieTreat yourselfMake eye contact w/someone & say I <3 UDraw somethingShout out “Happy Northern Spark!”Start a slow clapCompliment a strangerRecite a favorite recipeSing a song from the Wizard of OzPat your head and rub your tummyGo forward 3. (At arrival point: Go back 3.)Win a staring contest with someoneDance a slow jig

I finally have a full series of new works photographed to share. I have been working on these over the past year, some at a quicker pace than others. The first one is on transparent Denril paper; the rest are watercolor on Yupo.

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